Experts advocate rapid ratification of Ceta

After months of back and forth in parliament and demands by the CDU/CSU parliamentary group to finally ratify the Ceta free trade agreement between Canada and the European Union, several experts in the Bundestag last week called for a rapid signing of the ratification law.

New standards for “fair trade agreements”

In a public hearing of the Economic Affairs Committee, the Federal Government’s draft law “on the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (Ceta) between Canada, of the one part, and the European Union and its Member States, of the other part, of 30 October 2016″. With this law, the Federal Government wants to further expand the bilateral economic relations between Germany and the European Union with Canada and set new standards for future “fair trade agreements”.

“If we can’t even reach such an agreement with Canada, then with which country can we?”

Franz C. Mayer, University of Bielefeld

One of the ten invited experts, Till Patrik Holterhus, acting professor for public law at the Faculty of Political Science at Leuphana University Lüneburg, described the now renegotiated agreement as the “gold standard”. Holterhus judges that the lawsuits before Ceta arbitration courts that many feared are no longer a threat: He considers the chances of success of a lawsuit against Germany by a company to be “slim”.

Compatibility with the Basic Law emphasized

Franz C. Mayer, holder of the chair for public law, European law, international law, comparative law and legal policy at the University of Bielefeld, had even less doubt: “Ceta is compatible with the Basic Law, any further lawsuits will be unsuccessful.” Mayer warned against postponing ratification: “If we can’t even reach such an agreement with Canada, then with which state can we?”

Rolf J. Langhammer from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy also warned that delaying the conclusion would send a fatal signal from the EU to potential partners. Ceta must be used to negotiate comparable bilateral agreements with states that are as close to the European Union in their understanding of democracy as Canada, said Langhammer.

Not all experts are in favour of ratification

Two experts, however, spoke out against the Ceta ratification in its current form. Reinhard Jung, policy and media officer for Freie Bauern Deutschland GmbH, appealed to the MPs to reject ratification. The import of agricultural products from Canada is further increasing the price pressure for German farmers. He called for future trade agreements to be negotiated without systemically important areas such as food production.

Federica Violi of Erasmus University Rotterdam believes that the only way to achieve a fair agreement is to completely remove investment protection: in its current form, abuse cannot be prevented and the arbitration system is fundamentally at odds with climate protection.